Halo: Spartan Assault hands on (Video)

The launch party for the much-anticipated new Halo game; Halo: Spartan Assault for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 just happened on July 16th in New York City and we got to take a look at how it works thanks to a little demo from 343 Studios. No one was able to tell us an exact release date for the game just yet, and that’s probably because the developers are still putting a few final touches on it. The version we got to demo didn’t even have all of the levels or the achievements put together. Still, we expect it to be released in July and it will be available first only on Verizon Windows Phones “for a short time”. I don’t know if that means a week or what, but that’s what we were told. It will also be available for Windows 8 and Windows RT so that you can play it on a bigger screen. If you want an even bigger screen, you can plug an HDTV into your Windows 8 tablet of course.

The game takes place during the time period between Halo 3 and Halo 4 and follows a story line of Commander Sarah Palmer who also appears in Halo 4, but it’s a bit different from the usual first-person-shooter style that Halo is known for. On the touch screen devices it seems a two-stick top-down shooter made more sense. You’ll see a lot from other Halo games and what you may not get from the video below are the sound effects that really match the Halo universe you may be familiar with on the Xbox. We’re told that by playing Halo Spartan Assault, you’ll be able to unlock certain things in Halo 4.

Again, Halo: Spartan Assault will be available sometime this month, so keep an eye out in the Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 stores and in the meantime check out our demo video below.

Adam has had interests in combining technology with art since his first use of a Koala pad on an Apple computer. He currently has a day job as a graphic designer, photographer, systems administrator and web developer at a small design firm in Westchester, NY. His love of technology extends to software development companies who have often implemented his ideas for usability and feature enhancements. Mobile computing has become a necessity for Adam since his first Uniden UniPro PC100 in 1998. He has been reviewing and writing about smartphones for Pocketnow.com since they first appeared on the market in 2002.Read more about Adam Lein!